Madam Speaker, tonight I am here on behalf of Pacific salmon. The Pacific salmon strategy initiative, the main federal program supporting wild salmon restoration, habitat protection, science and rebuilding on the west coast, sunsets at the end of March. It was not renewed in the budget, and there is still no confirmation of renewal. This puts the single-largest federal investment in wild salmon recovery at risk.
First nations, hatcheries and community restoration groups cannot plan projects or keep workers on the ground without certainty. Habitat restoration is not something we can turn on and off; salmon recovery takes years of steady work. Time is of the essence. If the government is serious about protecting wild salmon and supporting coastal economies, it must renew the Pacific salmon strategy initiative now.
On the west coast, wild salmon are not an abstract policy issue. They are food security, culture, ecosystem health, local livelihoods and local economies. Organizations like the Redd Fish Restoration Society, working with Nuu-chah-nulth nations, have spent decades restoring watersheds, rebuilding salmon habitat and training local workers. This is reconciliation in action.
We also know, from programs like the watershed security fund, that restoration works. Dozens of projects have been supported, hundreds of jobs created and millions leveraged in community investment. Demand far exceeds available funding. Communities are lining up to do the work. If something works, we scale it up. We do not pull the rug out from underneath the people rebuilding wild salmon and protecting watersheds.
There is also a separate policy discussion under way about the salmon allocation policy. That review is long overdue and tied to court decisions and conservation realities. There has also been a lot of fear stirred up around the salmon allocation policy review. People are being told they will lose their right to fish, that salmon will stop being a public resource or that the Constitution is being rewritten. None of that is true. No one is being shut out of the water. Recreational fishing is not being eliminated. Families will still be able to fish.
Some Conservatives have chosen to stir fear instead of engaging honestly with the law, the science and the reality facing wild salmon. At the same time, the Liberal government has failed to clearly explain what this review is and what it is not, which is allowing misinformation to spread. What is actually happening is long overdue. Courts have ruled that indigenous fishing rights must be meaningfully accommodated. Outdated policy from 1999 has failed to reflect that reality, and at the same time, many wild salmon stocks are still in decline.
Conservation and rebuilding must come first, because without healthy wild salmon, there is no fishery for anyone. What is most troubling is the double standard we are hearing from some Conservatives. They show up at rallies and town halls and tell fishers one story, and then they come back to Ottawa, sit at the fisheries and oceans committee with the minister and her officials for two hours and do not raise these concerns at all. They have not once raised the sunsetting of the Pacific salmon strategy initiative, the most critical salmon funding we have, nor the concerns they claim to have heard about the salmon allocation policy, either at committee or here in the House of Commons.
As New Democrats, we are clear about where we stand. Our positions are evidence-based and expert-led. We stand for conservation first because without wild salmon, there is no fishery. We stand for rebuilding salmon so there is a future for all fishers, good jobs in coastal communities and strong local economies. We stand for respecting the law on indigenous rights, and we stand for stable, long-term funding so restoration does not collapse every few years.
The government must now move quickly on these decisions related to both the Pacific salmon strategy initiative and the salmon allocation policy review. Organizations, communities and businesses need transparency and certainty. Delays create real costs on the ground. Coastal communities are running out of time, and the government must act now. Time is of the essence.